Kenya Terror Attack: A Rebuttal to Amina Mohamed by Jared Odero

Kenyan Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed’s response to Giles Foden’s piece titled ‘Kenya: behind the terror is rampant corruption’ published in theguardian.com, was largely disingenuous. She claimed that “The Kenyan military led the operation to free hostages and kill or capture those who had trapped them, and we are proud of the professionalism and determination of our forces.” However, the truth is that we are ashamed of the unprofessional and undisciplined KDF soldiers who looted at Westgate and killed a Recce Squad officer because of poor command tactics.

Amina challenged Foden’s assertion that: “In Kenya crime and terrorism are deeply linked, not the least by the failure of successive Kenyan governments to control either.” She seems quite naïve because according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) 2012 Crime and Safety Report on Kenya, “The most common crime in Kenya’s major cities, and in particular Nairobi, is car-jacking. In virtually every instance, criminals use weapons to hijack a vehicle. Victims are sometimes tied up and put in the back seat or trunk of their own car. Criminals who commit these crimes will not hesitate to shoot a victim who is the least bit uncooperative or who may appear to hesitate before complying with their assailant. Violent and sometimes fatal criminal attacks, including armed carjackings, home invasions/burglaries, and kidnappings can occur at any time and in any location, most particularly in Nairobi.” Foden was right that successive governments have not been able to deal with such crimes.

Foden sees terrorist attacks in Kenya as part of “a spectrum of banditry, with corruption at one end, terrorism at the other, and regular robbery in the middle.” This must have annoyed Amina who wondered why past terrorist attacks in the US (9/11) and the UK (7/7) were not attributed to “corruption within the security agencies involved.” This is the kind of stuff that degrades Amina, who is the current international attack dog of the Jubilee government. Who does not know about deep-seated corruption within Kenya’s security agencies? In an analysis of corruption in Kenya’s security agencies, Edmund Blair reported that even if gathering intelligence to fight terrorism improved, “corruption would still hinder surveillance and tracking of cells. For the equivalent of a few hundred dollars slipped to an officer, a suspect can buy a passport, pass a checkpoint without searches or purchase arms, experts and officers say.” (See: uk.reuters.com October 4, 2013). Porous borders with Somalia make it easy for terrorists to enter Kenya at will by bribing border control officers.

Following the Westgate attack, 15 senior and mid-level immigration officers were sacked in October, for issuing Kenyan documents to illegal immigrants. Is this not enough proof of systemic corruption in Government? In Edmund Blair’s report, he cites a former Kenyan intelligence official who said: “he had once tried to prove to senior colleagues the depth of corruption by bringing his Somali operatives across the border using Kenyan passports he bought on the black market for about $300 each.” But Amina “sees no evil, hears no evil”, because Kenya is perfect and corruption-free. Former President Kibaki lied during his inauguration in 2002 that he would eradicate corruption, yet during his ten-year rule, it escalated beyond imagination. President Uhuru recently launched a website for Kenyans to report corruption; it is a wait and see situation.

Bad Governance
Foden wrote: “A lot of money has gone into commercial property, and particularly the building of supermarkets. But without governance it all looks very shaky.” Amina’s response mentioned how Kenya has progressed in recent years with multiparty elections, free primary education, a lively media, anti-corruption campaigns and judicial reforms, etc. Nonetheless, where is governance when Kenya is led by a president and his deputy who have cases of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC)? Moreover, the Judiciary is currently in crisis following the misuse of millions of cash by its employees, and members of the Judicial Service Commission have been paying themselves inflated sitting allowances, sourced from public funds. The country’s Auditor General released a report on the Government’s accounts for the year ending June 2012 and noted that KES 303 billion of public finance could not be accounted for. What about the purging of sections on land grabbing by the Kenyatta family noted in the report by Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission?

If former President Kibaki had qualities of good governance, he would have won this year’s Mo Ibrahim’s 2013 Prize for Excellence in Leadership which is aimed at retired African leaders. For this year, Kenya has improved within Ibrahim’s Governance Index (from 25 to 21), although he is worried that “governance indicators in the regional giants of Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya seem to indicate that these countries “appear to be stuttering a bit.”” (In: New African, November 3, 2013). We still have internally displaced persons (IDPs) in camps, and the media is being bullied for reporting the truth behind the Westgate attack. Poverty-stricken Kenyans still have no voice, while the rich and powerful ones have no regard for the rule of law. Amina herself has publicly encouraged Uhuru Kenyatta not to go to The Hague to face his trial. Is this good governance?

Amina ended her response to Foden with a veiled attack on foreign journalists that they should report responsibly on “the Kenya of today, and that we are judged by today’s reality, not memories of a Kenya past.” Whoever watched international reporters covering the Westgate operation will recall that they gave a true picture of the current Kenya. Were we to trust Amina and the misinformed Ole Lenku, Cabinet Secretary for Interior and his burning mattresses?

Amina scored very poorly with her Westgate rhetoric which she presented at the United Nations Security Council in a bid to have Uhuru Kenyatta’s ICC trial deferred for one year. What she has not realized is that she is just a pawn in the larger game of the Kikuyu elite who will do anything to protect Uhuru. By accepting to work with the ICC suspects, she has soiled her impeccable diplomatic credentials. She is doing a Martha Karua who was used by Kibaki to attack the West and then dumped into oblivion when she ceased being useful.

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The Kenya attacks should shatter the crude picture of Africa’s future as one of crime v supermarkets

Giles Foden

The Guardian, Monday 23 September 2013

At a burger restaurant, the body of a man and woman lie in a final embrace. As Kenyan soldiers launch their assault, pop music is still playing from loudspeakers.

The grisly consequences of an attack by al-Shabaab on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre are still unfolding. As individual families mourn, Kenya is once again counting the cost of its point position as a regional bulwark against militant Islam. The country has been here before: in 1998 al-Qaida bombed the US embassy in the Kenyan capital; and in 2002 a terror attack against an Israeli-owned passenger aircraft and hotel took place in the coastal city of Mombasa. Westgate, too, is Israeli owned, but this may be less significant than it might appear.

More important, for the future of Kenya and the continent, are the two competing visions of Africa that the attacks project, a tension for which the crude shorthand is: “crime versus supermarkets”. Al-Shabaab emerged from the tradition of the shifta, a word long applied in east Africa to common bandits, but also (less frequently, and depending who was speaking) to rebel groups. There is a continuity between the two usages that challenges the tendency to separate terrorism and criminality into discrete phenomena.

Al-Shabaab is responding, specifically, to Kenyan involvement in a joint African peacekeeping force (Amisom) in Somalia. But like al-Qaida before it (the two groups linked formally in 2011), al-Shabaab is really attacking the very idea of capitalism; not through any greatly developed sense of revolution, but through an inverted sense of what is good for Africa.

In Kenya crime and terrorism are deeply linked, not least by the failure of successive Kenyan governments to control either. Indeed, the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta (whose nephew has been killed in the attack), and the vice-president, William Ruto, both face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to their alleged role in co-ordinating election violence – Ruto’s trial at The Hague has been adjourned for a week to allow him to come home to deal with the crisis.

These attacks are part of a spectrum of banditry, with corruption at one end, terrorism at the other, and regular robbery in the middle. Some Kenyans will feel that the conditions in which the attacks have happened have arisen because of economic growth in a vacuum of governance. Money that should have been spent on security and other aspects of national infrastructure has been disappearing for generations.

Corruption as well as geopolitics made possible a horrific situation in which Muslim shoppers in Westgate were apparently left alive and non-Muslims killed, in a ghoulish travesty of the mixed nature of Kenyan identity.

Ordinary Kenyans rightly want to be able to shop safely, and there is a long history of them doing just that, irrespective of their religion or that of the shop owner. An Ismaili Muslim from Kutch in India, the great Allidina Visram (1851-1916), more or less single-handedly invented the retail trade in Kenya. Muslims have been at the heart of Kenyan commerce for hundreds of years.

The past decade has seen rapid growth of the Kenyan and other African economies. This story of “Africa rising” is intrinsically tied up with the further development of an African middle class, which has brought confidence and investment. A lot of money has gone into commercial property, and particularly the building of supermarkets. But without governance it all looks very shaky.

You can gesture at the transnational problem of Islamist terrorism all you like, but it’s just hot air unless you invest in proper security on the ground in your own country, with the right safeguards to civil liberties. For now Kenya must mourn its dead. But unless the corruption stops, and real investment is made in the social fabric, Kenya will once again be faced with systemic shocks it is hardly able to deal with.

My country has changed much in recent years – it’s unfair to place the Westgate attacks on a ‘spectrum of banditry’

It was difficult to read Giles Foden’s article squarely blaming the attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi on alleged inadequacies of the Kenyan government and, as he puts it “rampant corruption” (Behind terror is corruption, 24 September). The Kenyan military led the operation to free hostages and kill or capture those who had trapped them, and we are proud of the professionalism and determination of our forces.

Foden says: “In Kenya crime and terrorism are deeply linked, not least by the failure of successive Kenyan governments to control either.” And he continues: “These attacks are part of a spectrum of banditry, with corruption at one end, terrorism at the other, and regular robbery in the middle.”

Make a brief comparison with other terrorist attacks. The disasters of 9/11 or the more recent Boston marathon in the US and 7/7 in the UK – both highly developed countries – could hardly be blamed on corruption, so why Kenya? We do not recall Foden blaming corruption within the security agencies involved.

“A lot of money has gone into commercial property, and particularly the building of supermarkets. But without governance it all looks very shaky,” says Foden. But he seems unaware of how much Kenya has changed in the past decade. The country’s first truly free and fair multiparty election only took place in 2002, and since then the country has been transformed by a new constitution that gives power to all communities. Less than 10 years ago we introduced free primary education, now over a million children a year go to school.

Judicial reform, in some cases supported by international experts and donors – including the US and UK – has put the courts out of the political influence that once was common. Anti-corruption campaigns by government and civil society, the requirement for open tenders for government contracts, and the development of a lively media, have transformed the country.

This is not to say Kenya is perfect – far from it. A multinational forensic investigation currently under way – including with British agents – will examine the tragedy and assess the government’s response to it. It shows the extent of our openness that we allow foreign security forces to share in an investigation we could probably manage ourselves.

At the same time, we will strive to be as open as possible in our actions against al-Qaida and its regional ally al-Shabaab in the coming months, without compromising the security of our country and the safety of our military personnel.

It is important that there is responsible international reporting. In this age of budget cuts in the international media there are too few foreign journalists with expert experience of Africa living in and reporting from the continent. Kenya suffered a terrible tragedy at Westgate. As information is released in the coming days and weeks, it is crucial – for the sake of the victims and the survivors – that reporting reflects the Kenya of today, and that we are judged by today’s reality, not memories of a Kenya past.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/07/kenya-terror-attack-corruption-blame

“we are proud of the professionalism and determination of our forces” wrote Amina.

“Mannequins were stripped clean, jewelry cases smashed, racks of expensive suits carted off, dozens of cash registers cracked open and at least one member of the Kenyan security services arrested, caught with a bloody wallet. The looting of the Westgate mall, the scene of a siege in which scores of people were killed last month, appeared to have the scope and organization of a large-scale military operation, and many Kenyans are asking if that is what it was. ”

“CCTV footage from the Westgate Mall attacks reportedly shows soldiers going on a drunken looting spree throughout the complex. The Kenyan Star, which saw the video, said virtually all of the shops in the mall were looted during the three day battle between soldiers and militants. “

DEPUTY President William Ruto is furious that the financial budget allocated for his office has been transferred back to State House.

Ruto’s office will now have to seek approval from State House for almost every expenditure.

“The Office of the Deputy President is no longer allowed to incur expenditure without approval from the Presidency,” said a senior officer in the Office of the President yesterday.

State House Controller Lawrence Lenayapa referred the Star to the Treasury secretary Henry Rotich whose secretary said he was in meetings yesterday afternoon.

Presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu is in South Africa with President Uhuru Kenyatta and did not respond to our inquiries.

Yesterday Ruto summoned Lenayapa, his Principal Administrative Secretary Daniel Wambura, his chief of Staff Maryanne Keitany and other senior officials including his controller of budget and the chief accountant to a meeting in his Karen office.

“The meeting went on and the DP demanded clarification on a number of issues. Lenayapa provided some answers but asked that he consults with the Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua and the President on other issues,” said a source at the meeting.

It is not clear when Ruto’s vote was moved to the Office of the President but multiple sources told the Star that it was taken away while he was attending his trial in the Hague.

As a result there have been delays in processing allowances for Ruto’s staff, some who have been with him at the Hague.

“The Office of the DP cannot hire anyone without approval from the Presidency and can not buy tissue paper unless it is approved by the same office. We have no idea what this means,” said a URP MP yesterday.

In another meeting on Tuesday, Ruto almost fired Keitany when he learnt that appointment letters of some staff, some in his press service, had been revoked without his knowledge while he was away.

At that meeting senators Kipchumba Murkomen and Charles Keter reportedly pleaded with Ruto to give Keitany a second chance.

“The boss was very upset with Keitany because he could not understand why the letters of appointments had been revoked yet he personally ensured some of them were written before they joined his office. Some of those affected were senior staff who left their jobs to join him when he took over the office,” said the source.

The new staff have gone for months without pay and some have been grumbling about how Keitany has handled them.

The Deputy President is the principal assistant of the President and deputizes for the President in the execution of his constitutional duties.

Article 134 of the constitution states that when the President is absent or temporarily incapacitated, the Deputy President shall act as the President.

When Uhuru’s trial starts at the Hague in February 2014, Ruto will presumably have to deputise for the president for lengthy periods.

Ruto’s office is run by Keitany but also has an administrative secretary, an economic advisor, and an adviser responsible for food and climate change. He also has his private secretary, communication secretary and legal adviser.

Most of these officials deputise equivalent positions in the Office of the President.

The annual budget for the Office of the President is Sh1.1 billion for development and Sh3.1 billion for recurrent expenditure. The allocation given to the Deputy President was drawn from this vote.

FORMER MPs and administrators are expected to make a comeback into the public sector as parastatal bosses. President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto are expected to announce the new board chairmen and CEOs in the coming days. The shake-up of the parastatal sector was initiated by a task force led by State House Constitutional Adviser Abdikadir Mohammed that recommended the scrapping of some ministries and reduction of directors. Former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura is to be named the chairman of the Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSET).

Muthaura resigned from government after he was charged at the ICC jointly with Uhuru of organising post-election violence. Former Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director George Muhoho, Uhuru’s uncle, is poised to take over at Kenya Power. Former Kengen CEO Eddy Njoroge is now the informal energy adviser to Uhuru at State House. Veteran Aldai politician Sammy Choge is likely to be made the new chairman at Kengen. Choge is also the Nandi County chairman for Ruto’s URP party. Former Isiolo South MP Abdul Bahari is slotted to take over the chairmanship of the National Social Security Fund board. He was an MP in the last Parliament. Former Kikuyu MP Lewis Nguyai, a close Uhuru ally, is likely to become the chairman of the Kenya Leather Authority. Former Kamukunji MP Simon Mbugua is to be named the chairman of Kenya Betting and Control Board. Former minister and close Ruto ally, Chirau Mwakwere has been as the chairman of the Kenya Ports Authority. Mwakwere is a key URP figure and the Jubilee point-man at the Coast. Joe Kibe is set to be the next chairman of the Kenya Pipeline Authority.

The President and Deputy President are expected to make further sweeping changes in the parastatal sector by naming more new managing directors and CEOs. The appointments will need to be approved by the National Assembly before they can be formally gazetted. Last week, Uhuru was forced to revoke the appointment of John Mututho as chairman of Nacada as the National Assembly was not involved. On Thursday Uhuru nominated Muthutho again and it will be up to the National Assembly to accept or reject him. The Abdikadir-led task force on parastatal reform has set new standards for the recruitment of managers and the structure of State Corporations including reducing the number of directors. The team has proposed that all board chairmen must at least have a master’s degree and ten years’ experience in a relevant field.

To sit on the board as a director, one will need a Bachelor’s degree, be a member of a professional body and to have served in a senior management position for at least six years. Parastatal CEOs will also require a Master’s degree, be a member of a professional body, have ten years’ experience in a relevant field, and at least five years in senior management. The proposals also bar any person who has worked with a state corporation in the past five years from sitting on its board. – See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-142914/new-jobs-muthaura-muhoho-mwakwere#sthash.QSVJjZfI.dpuf

A Standard investigative journalist was trailed and threatened by unknown gunmen over his coverage of the pending cases at the International Criminal Court at The Hague and a multi-billion shilling procurement scandal playing out in the Office of the President.

Mwaniki Munuhe had just left a social meeting with his two media colleagues at a hotel on Thika Road on Friday night when he noticed a white car on his tail.

“I was with a friend. He was the one driving. Every time he accelerated, the car behind also accelerated. When we slowed down, it also slowed down. We decided to drive faster, but they kept up with our speed,” said Munuhe.

The duo drove into Munuhe’s home in Kasarani where he instructed the guards not to let the car, an old model Toyota Premio, in. The gunmen were not interested in getting into Munuhe’s compound. They just turned their car around, and waited.

As Munuhe got out of his car to open the gate, two gunmen jumped out of the white car and approached him.

“They both had long leather jackets. One had an AK-47 and another one had a pistol. They approached, guns drawn. I froze and looked at them,” Munuhe recalled.

The gunmen ordered him not to move and pushed the cold gun muzzles into his ribs and his back.

“Those ICC stories you have been writing, plus the one we hear you are following up at the Office of the President, you should stop!’” one of them told Munuhe in Kiswahili.

“Umesikia (understood)?”

They then forced Munuhe to open his gate and shoved him inside.

“I rushed upstairs to the rooftop to see if I could take the details of the car, but they had disappeared,” said Munuhe.

Munuhe remembers seeing one of the gunmen scrolling something that looked like a tablet, while all the time looking side to side.

The best artical well analysed showing how Amina the (Somali She camel)her loots comes from Al-shababs (she is somali ) her people the Somalis has been waging unsucesful wars to form and unite The Great Somali) From Isiolo to Djibuti ,Ogaden etc. In fact If somali suceeds to unite the whole of Greater Somali it would be the biggest Nation in Africa!
Amina Mohhamed is not that stupid hence Somali’s has very high Iqs than Kenyans , She is playing her card well .During Moi Somalis political life started to change drastically hence A Somali Military Officer Helped(Saved) Dictator Daniel Arap Moi from being overthrown by Military . It is said the Bastard illitrate Camel with a hump Gen .Mohamood Mohamed helped Moi to put out the ill -planned AIrforce coup detat in 1982 , Before that Jomo Kenyatta (Uhuru’s Dad) used to castrate Shiftas who waged seccessionist war in The Kenya’s NFD to fight Mzee Jomo and to create greater somali-land They were defeated with the help of British troops residing (Stationed)in Kenya to this day. It was under Moi’s dictatorship Somalis life turned from that of second class citizens (but do not forget )it was also during Moi time the greatest heinous( Wagalla massacre) was committed )by the (Kenya Army (KDF)in short Amina the foreign Affairs secretary is playing (kasku) the devil knows very well whic side of the coin buttering her dry bread .She has offered her Pussy to be consumed by Gema(mafia9 which-ever style they deem like.

Dearest Ambassador Amina Mohamed. Receive my warm greetings from The United States of America. I pray this letter finds you in good health of mind and body. From being one of the most powerful personalities at the United Nations (UN) to becoming the first woman in Kenyan history to occupy one of the most prestigious offices of the cabinet secretary for foreign affairs, you continue to travel an expeditious journey of the knowns and unknowns.

I have noticed in recent times that your role in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has grown exponentially in leaps and bounds. Your presenceaffirms and commands. You have become an epicenter upon which most, if not all domestic and foreign policies of the Jubilee government are mooted.

By design or coincidence, you have strategically positioned yourself as the face of the Jubilee government and the voice of Mr. Kenyatta’s administration. The Standard newspaper described you in a headline as one of the most powerful voices behind the government’s “new ICC stand.” I describe you as one of the most intriguing figures to watch in this generation. You have the capacity to change Kenyan history for good or for worse.

Kenyans and the world may hold different opinion in as far as your diplomatic approach and your articulation of local and international issues is concerned. But I bet they can all agree in affirmative that you’re smooth, smart, articulate and confident. Your global view and international diplomatic experience is excellent.

Your strong communication skills reveal your intelligence and suaveness. You’re plucky and gutsy. However, at times; you appear too cocky. You wiggle through the ups and downs of Uhuru government by giving answers to every question. Perhaps you exude too much confidence and ooze too much intelligence.

In some cases, your answers aren’t factual. But you answer anyway. You’re a kind of girl who takes a bull by its horns. I submit to you that’s a dangerous approach.

Your ultimate strength shouldn’t necessarily lie in how much you know. Rather, the strength of your character should lie in your honesty and desire to want to know what you don’t know.

Yet, from mooting policies, travelling internationally, defending the government and defining domestic political discourses; it seems to me your tenure in the jubilee government is sucking every ounce of energy from you. I could be wrong. But your body language reveals a pained diplomat who has to do whatever it takes to cast a government in positive light even when at times it is in a bad light.

In Your recent opinion piece that was published by The Guardian newspaper, you vehemently delinked corruption from insecurity. Yet, every credible study reveals corruption is inextricably linked not only to West Gate Terror massacre but to most incidents of insecurity in the country.

Transparency international (TI) ranked Kenya as fourth most corrupt state in the world. Study done by Ibrahim Index of African Governance (AIAG) flipped your conviction on corruption upside down. It ranked Kenya’s security among the worst in Africa due to porous borders, thanks to corruption.

Sometime you defend the indefensible. You go an extra mile to project Jubilee government as perfect. To you, it seems; Uhuru administration is a seamless blend of sinless personalities. But when one’s words goes against one’s conscience, the body gets disoriented and communicates opposite message.

Your appearance on BBC’s Hard Talk and CNN-London, lends credence. Asked if Uhuru Kenyatta should face charges at ICC, you dissented by reiterating that Uhuru and Ruto shouldn’t be at ICC because they’re not guilty.

You’re neither a judge nor a prosecutor to adduce evidence, vindicate or sentence Uhuru and Ruto. Right there you missed a diplomatic answer. You emerged as a sycophant rather than a smart diplomat I know.

Asked if there was abdication of duties by NIS, CID, Police and security apparatus in general that precipitated West Gate Terror Massacre, you emphatically denied.

Yet reports about abdication of duties persist. The media and senator Mike Sonko have asserted that our security apparatus knew about impending attacks that were planned against West Gate Mall, The Parliament and The KICC. But they did absolutely nothing to foil the terror plot.

A balanced diplomat of your caliber shouldn’t dismiss everything at face value. As you defend the government, don’t lose your credibility. Play a double pronged diplomacy. Uphold the dignity of the government but also acknowledge the gravity of situations. Denial of facts is denial of truth. Truth like facts may be denied but it always comes back to haunt.

But let’s face it. You’re serving the government under extra-ordinary times. A government whose President and deputy are indicted for crimes against humanity, unemployment rate is in the roof, insecurity has become a threat to economic opportunities, corruption has eaten the past and is busy eating the future and international image continues to suffer; isn’t an easy government to serve. It is challenging even to the most intelligent diplomats.

By and large, you’re still one of the finest daughters of Kenya and Africa. But be cautious lest you are used and dumped, just ask Mr. Kalonzo Musyoka. Protect your gravitas. Jealously guard your reputation. It took you decades to build. Put the interests of your motherland before egocentric ambitions of personalities. Good luck in your responsibilities.-

By Jacktone Ambuka, a Kenyan Residing At State College Pennsylvania USA.

Two Kenyan leaders charged with crimes against humanity have retaliated with an all-out attack on the International Criminal Court. Although Kenya is a court member, and President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto have agreed to cooperate, they are doing everything they can to discredit the institution by accusing it of racial bias and of being a Western tool.

Let’s be clear: The court has the case because Kenyans refused to initiate their own process to ensure accountability for the victims of the violence that followed the 2007 election, when mobs went on a rampage, killing, raping and setting fire to homes and businesses. More than 1,100 people died in the ethnic clashes. They are the real victims here, and they deserve justice.

An African Union panel, led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, mediated an end to the crisis, and a Kenyan inquiry commission concluded that at least some violence was organized with the aid of businessmen and politicians. The commission called for a special tribunal to bring those responsible to account. If that didn’t happen, it said, the case should be turned over to the International Criminal Court. After the Kenyan Parliament twice rejected proposals to create a tribunal, the case went to the I.C.C. prosecutor, who charged six people with crimes against humanity — among them Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto, who were leaders of rival political parties in 2007-8 and have since joined forces.

The charge of racism against the I.C.C., while specious, has a certain appeal: Of the eight cases brought by the court, all involve African states. There are indeed real questions about why charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity have not been pressed elsewhere — in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Still, serious abuses occurred in each of the African cases now before the court, and they need to be adjudicated.

While the court may be flawed, it is the last resort to deliver justice for victims of conflict in countries that lack the capacity or will to do so themselves. Last May, the African Union passed a resolution accusing the court of targeting Africans. What it really should have focused on, and applauded, is that the court is also defending Africans, including the 1,100 Kenyans slaughtered in 2007-8.

Kenya terror attack: the infighting and chaos that allowed deadly siege to drag on

The Westgate mall terrorists were cornered within hours but a lack of army leadership led to more bloodshed. By Mike Pflanz, Zoe Flood and Ben Farmer in Nairobi.

By Mike Pflanz, Zoe Flood and Ben Farmer in Nairobi

10:00PM BST 28 Sep 2013

As a group of al-Shabaab gunmen prepared to attack Nairobi’s Westgate mall last weekend, Esther Nyauncho was in its supermarket with her boyfriend, Ravi Ramrattan. Walking through the aisles, they did what every modern couple do to save time. “I went to the dairy section, and he went to the meat counter,” she said.

It was a random decision that was to spare her life — and cost him his.

When gunfire and grenade blasts tore through the building shortly after 12.30pm on Saturday, Miss Nyauncho, a 25-year-old financial analyst, fled with others to a storeroom, where two hours later she emerged unharmed.

A Sunday Telegraph reporter came across Ms Nyauncho alone outside the shopping centre last Saturday afternoon, desperately searching for information about her boyfriend. On Saturday, exactly a week later, she was attending his memorial service — one of scores of farewells now going on across Nairobi, Kenya and the wider world as it reels from the impact of one of the worst terror attacks in modern times.

Set in an upmarket district of the Kenyan capital popular with expatriates, Westgate was a likely terrorism target. It symbolises everything that fundamentalist Islam sees as a challenge: fashion, fun and the spread of Western modernity into places that once knew only poverty.

It was where teenage Kenyan hipsters in low-slung jeans and oversize sunglasses went to sip milkshakes, and where expat families would meet for a latte and cake or a glass of wine. Inside were also a casino, a Japanese cocktail bar and a cinema.

Now, Westgate is a place half-destroyed. Bomb-squad soldiers on Saturday continued to inch along, shop by ruined shop, searching for booby-trapped explosives, while at the back, where the building collapsed, an unknown number of mangled bodies still lay entombed in rubble.

The full horror of the 80-hour siege of Nairobi’s premier shopping centre, and its chaotic climax, can now be detailed for the first time, amid fresh revelations of the heroism and havoc of the past eight days.

It has emerged that:

– Armed private security agents and elite Kenyan police cornered the terrorists early on, but were forced to pull out in the confusion of a separate army assault

– Spies warned of a specific attack on the mall a year ago

– The attackers may have tried to flee via a services tunnel leading to a culvert in a nearby river.

What would become one of international terrorism’s signature attacks is now thought to have begun as long ago as last September, in the ungoverned wastes of Somalia’s hinterland, according to tips passed to the security services by informants.

There, al-Shabaab, a Somali group linked to al-Qaeda, assembled a squad of international volunteers and provided them with detailed plans of the Westgate mall, possibly from blueprints acquired by colluders in Kenya. The team staged rehearsals and sourced weapons, while radical imams gave blessings for the attack.

According to Kenyan security sources, the terrorists rented a nondescript apartment opposite Westgate and began a surveillance operation.

It was obvious that the time to strike would be a weekend, probably a lunchtime, when the cafes and restaurants would be filling up, and shops at their busiest.

Last Saturday, across all floors of the mall, ordinary people were enjoying what should have an ordinary day off. Among them were Britons and East African Asians, two communities with a long history in Kenya.

Zahira Bawa and her daughter, Jennah, 8, from Leamington Spa, were in the Nakumatt supermarket, the one where Miss Nyauncho had also been browsing.

Mitul Shah, 38, a British businessman, was on the top floor preparing to judge a children’s cookery competition.

Ross Langdon, 32, a British-Australian architect, and his pregnant Dutch girlfriend, Elif Yavuz, 33, had just finished a pre-natal class and were grabbing a burger before shopping for baby clothes. Within hours, they were dead in each other’s arms, among a civilian death toll now put at 61.

The attackers — between 10 and 15 of them — came in three waves. The first leapt from a silver saloon car and began spraying bullets along the front of the mall, where there is a smart outdoor café. The second group headed on foot for the basement car park. A third party drove a vehicle up the ramp at the side of the building, onto the rooftop car park, and right into the Junior Super Chef competition.

There, they began firing indiscriminately. Mr Shah, whose firm Bidco was sponsoring the event, died trying to shield children, as all around people fell where they stood. The floor was awash with blood.

The idea that this was simply a very violent robbery — not impossible in Kenya — faded quickly as the gunmen on the roof and their accomplices downstairs lined up survivors and demanded that Muslims come forward. If they proved their faith, they were released, although many Muslims ended up dead, too.

Survivors said the terrorists were heavily armed and unnervingly composed as they went about their slaughter. They spoke English and Swahili poorly, wore black keffiyehs, combat trousers and toolbelts strung with grenades. Several had ammunition bandoliers across their chests.

As shoppers realised they were being targeted, those unable to flee stayed quiet to avoid attracting attention. The mall’s atrium, usually bustling with life, fell eerily silent, the low-volume piped music punctuated only by occasional gunfire. Much of it was thought to involve single-bullet execution shots, delivered at point-blank range.

Stories of extraordinary survival emerged. One French mother, who has subsequently asked not be named, escaped after her four-year-old son confronted one jihadist and told him: “You’re a bad man.” Apparently chastened, the gunman gave him and ­sister a Mars bar each and let them leave with their mother, who had been shot in the thigh. As the boy went, the gunman said: “Please forgive me — we are not monsters.”

On a balcony outside the supermarket, Katherine Walton, 38, an American IT specialist, lay beneath a stand selling Taiwanese laptops, cradling her three daughters, aged four, two and 13 months.

During a brief lull, Abdul Haji, a Kenyan businessman who had rushed to Westgate to try to rescue his brother, signalled to four-year-old Portia to make a run for it. She did, the photograph of their escape appearing on front pages of newspapers around the world last week.

Outside, the injured who escaped were bundled into cars, onto pick-up trucks and into ambulances. Hundreds of others who managed to flee stumbled away, clearly in shock, some collapsing into rescuers’ arms, sobbing.

Back inside, what was to become an 80-hour siege had begun. On Saturday night, security sources, diplomats with knowledge of the operation and witnesses told The Sunday Telegraph that it need not have lasted that long.

The first rescuers to respond were a small team of Kenyan-Indians from a local plain-clothes unit that acts as a kind of armed neighbourhood watch for the large local Asian community.

With a handful of armed Kenyan police, they helped hundreds of people escape before pushing the terrorists into a corner on the ground floor, near the supermarket.

“They were returning fire, heavily, but they weren’t moving out from where they were,” said one person involved. “We had them contained. Done properly, we could have ended that thing on Saturday.”

Instead, Kenya’s army, which had taken four hours to group and prepare their assault, crashed in through both the ground and top-floor entrances, without understanding that some men wearing holsters and body armour were not attackers.

No radio contacts were set up between the units. No overall command had been appointed, and different commanders squabbled. A senior policeman was shot dead in a friendly-fire incident. Chaotic gunfire streaked across the mall’s open spaces.

Within 30 minutes, late in the afternoon, both the initial responders and the army had pulled out, leaving the mall to the terrorists and hostages.

Using staff staircases and hidden corridors, and strolling from shop to shop, the attackers then hunted down anyone else still alive. Gunshots outside late on Saturday and overnight are feared to have been further executions.

As dawn broke on Sunday and helicopters buzzed overhead, the security perimeter widened around the mall. Outside, the nearby Indian community centre became a focal point for volunteers, with locals bringing in food and bottled water. Relatives of the missing gathered, running their fingers down lists of names of people admitted to Nairobi hospitals.

Others scanned photos taken by doctors who had risked forays into the building to rescue the injured, taking shots of those lying nearby that they could not reach.

That was how Louis Bawa, the Leamington Spa businessman whose daughter Jennah and wife Zahira were missing, discovered that they were dead. Looking through those photographs, he said, was “something I would never want anyone to have to do”.

Details of what happened on Monday and Tuesday are sketchy. The Kenyan army, including elite units, repeatedly attempted to gain access to the building. A terrorist sniper on a balcony forced them back. Advisers from international special forces units who suggested different tactics were ignored. At one point, a local commander apparently protested angrily that he did want “wazungu” — whites — interfering.

With al-Shabaab gloating that there would be no negotiation, it was becoming clear that what was calculated to be a hostage-rescue operation would end an all-out assault.

“By Monday evening, a decision was taken that there were probably no hostages remaining alive inside, although we will never know,” said one Western diplomat.

Soon after, a series of large explosions echoed from the bowels of the building, sending smoke billowing into the sky. What was thought to be ordnance from the terrorists is now believed to have been rocket-propelled grenades fired by Kenyan forces into the rear of the mall, where the attackers had regrouped.

A fire took hold, and the three floors of the car park had collapsed, pancaking to the ground, killing anyone left alive inside. Sporadic gunfire and the occasional explosion continued to erupt.

At 8pm on Tuesday, Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, broadcast live to the world that “it is over”. Five attackers were dead, he said, along with six soldiers and 61 civilians. The total number of British dead went up on Saturday from five to six, although no further names have been disclosed.

Privately, diplomats and security sources say the full death toll may never be known, nor the total number of attackers.

In Britain, questions also remain about the rumoured role of the so-called “White Widow”, Samantha Lewth-waite, the former wife of one of the July 7 suicide bombers, who is wanted by Interpol.

The government is awash with rumours of an impending shake-up as well as scores of top parastatal and ambassadorial appointments.

Almost nine months into its five-year term, the Jubilee government does not have ambassador-level representation at some of the most important stations, including Washington and London.

Faced with the numerous challenges of government, President Uhuru Kenyatta appears to be still re-calibrating his administration for greater effectiveness by picking former politicians and experts for an ad hoc advisory team, which is at times causing friction with government officials.

Appointment of advisers has unsettled some people in government, including Cabinet secretaries, some of whom privately complain that they have been bypassed when major decisions within their ministries are made.

Two operational bases have been set to accommodate the advisers at State House and Harambee House. The advisers have direct access to the President.

In relying more on advisers rather than on his Cabinet for firm decisions, the Kenyatta administration appears to be acting like Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, whose administration has 98 advisers.

The Kenyatta advisers are currently compiling a list of fresh appointments and deciding who should be in and who should be pushed out of top State parastatals and diplomatic posts expected to be in place next month.

The group — which includes a team whose appointments are informal and which also comprise some Cabinet secretaries, technocrats, politicians and family members — has overshadowed government officers.

POWERFUL PUBLIC SERVANT

There are private complaints that this influential group has eclipsed the Cabinet from the core of decision making despite its technocratic composition.

Chief of Staff and the Head of Public Service James Kinyua, who was former permanent secretary for Finance, is now the most powerful public servant around the presidency, eclipsing Mr Francis Kimemia, who, though humbled, remains the holder of the Office of Cabinet Secretary.

Mr Kinyua will be responsible for top public appointments expected in the coming weeks, including the filling of top vacancies in various State offices such as ambassadors and heads of parastatals, among others.

“It has become very difficult to operate with all these advisers around. Now there are certain decisions we only come to learn about at the last minute. Sometimes they bypass us. It is strange,” said a Cabinet secretary who asked not to be named.

Apart from Mr Kinyua, other members of the formal advisory group include Jomo Gecaga, the President’s private secretary; Lawrence Lenayapa, the State House Comptroller; and his deputy George Kariuki; Nancy Gitau, the chief political adviser; and Abdikadir Mohammed, the senior adviser, Constitution and Legal Affairs.

Cabinet Secretaries Anne Waiguru (Devolution and Planning) and Amina Mohammed (Foreign Affairs) have emerged as the most influential ministers around the President so far.

The President’s mother, Mama Ngina Kenyatta, is also a significantly influential personality by virtue of her relationship with the Head of State.

Mr Joshua Kutuny is Mr Kenyatta’s political adviser and heads the directorate of political affairs but unlike Ms Gitau, who is based at State House, the former Cherengany MP is being accommodated at Harambee House.

Yesterday, Mr Kutuny dismissed claims that some of the President’s advisers are undermining Cabinet secretaries. “You know everybody has his role. Everybody is respected and there is no conflict or situations where individuals are undermined,” he said.

Former Cabinet minister Joseph Nyaga is the latest of those appointed as the President’s adviser. He has been named regional cooperation adviser. He was part of Mr Kenyatta’s delegation in his last week’s trip to Rwanda.

This is Heavy shot directed toUhuru Kenyatta by none other than Ruto henchmen!?Igo Nini Hava igo gitu>A senator allied to Deputy President William Ruto has demanded the resignation of more than 10 top government officials whom he accuses of “coaching witnesses” to implicate Mr Ruto at the International Criminal Court.

In a statement likely to rock the Jubilee Coalition, Kericho Senator Charles Keter — one of Mr Ruto’s closest allies — sensationally called for the resignation of the unnamed officials, threatening that if they did not, they will be forced out of office.

“They are over 10 people and they know themselves very well.

I would rather they just leave before they are forced out because we are not very comfortable working with people who can engineer a case,” he said.

Mr Ruto was elected alongside Mr Uhuru Kenyatta in the March 4 elections.

The President and his deputy are facing crimes against humanity charges at the ICC.

The senator’s allegations are similar to those made by Mr Ruto’s lawyers at the International Criminal Court when they cross-examined the third witness in the case facing the Deputy President.

The Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government was the most bribe-prone institution in 2012, according to a survey by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

The results of the survey, which were released on Tuesday, also identified Uasin Gishu as the region with the highest number of respondents paying bribes, followed by Nairobi, Narok and Kakamega. In terms of the number of bribes demanded, Uasin Gishu was ranked as first, followed by Samburu, Embu, Meru and Nyamira.

According to the report, the average amount of money offered as a bribe is highest in Baringo (Sh20,075) with Kirinyaga (Sh15,914) and Nakuru (Sh8,466) ranked as second and third highest.

On the other end of the scale, Busia, Baringo, West Pokot, Turkana and Siaya had the lowest number of respondents who paid a bribe when it was demanded.

The Kenya Police was ranked as the most corrupt government department.

WITH CURTAIL MENT OF PRESS FREEDOM,BUNGLING OF UN SECURITY QUEST TO DEFFER KENYA ICC CASES,FRUSTRATION OF URP IN JUBILEE COALITION ,ATTEMPTS TO CLIP URP POWERS IN POWER STRUGGLE WITHIN JUBILEE GOVERN AND IMMINENT SCHEWED APPOINTMENTS,KENYA IS FACING PROSPECTS OF MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL GOVT SINCE INDEPENDENCE.
JUBILLEE IS A POOR CARBON COPY OF KANU REGIME CAMOFLEGED WITH IMITATIONS FROM PATRON MASTERS IN RWANDA,UGANDA,ETHIOPIA ETC IN ABUSE OF PRESS FREDOM,IMPERIALISM,NGOS, ETC AND WE HAVE LOST IN THE EYES OF CIVILISED WORLD

U.N. Security Council to vote this week on delay of Kenya trials: Rwanda
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS Tue Nov 12, 2013 7:23pm EST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – As Africa urges the U.N. Security Council to take it more seriously, Rwanda plans to put to a vote this week a draft resolution to defer International Criminal Court trials of Kenya’s leaders for one year, despite lacking sufficient support.

The 15-member Security Council is split, diplomats say, over an African Union request to postpone the trials of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto so they can deal with the aftermath of the Nairobi mall attack in September by the al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab, in which at least 67 people died.

Kenyatta and Ruto face charges related to the violence after Kenya’s 2007 elections, in which 1,200 people died. Both deny the charges and have tried to have the cases adjourned or halted. Ruto’s trial began last month, while Kenyatta’s trial is due to start on February 5 after being delayed for a third time.

The cases have stirred an increasing backlash against the International Criminal Court from some African governments, which regard it as a tool of Western powers. A delegation of African ministers told the Security Council on October 31 that they believe their “requests are not given serious attention.”

U.N. Security Council member Rwanda circulated a draft resolution to approve a deferral among members earlier this month. The council discussed the issue on Tuesday and Rwandan U.N. Ambassador Eugene Gasana said members would vote on it this week.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that during the closed door meeting Gasana told the council he planned to put the resolution to a vote on Friday.

China’s U.N. envoy, president of the council for November, insisted that the council does take African worries seriously, although he acknowledged the divisions over a deferral.

“The members attach importance to the concerns of the African countries,” said Chinese U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi after the meeting. “They do see this issue with utmost attention … But there’s no agreement on the thrust of the draft resolution.”

Security Council resolutions need nine votes and no vetoes by any of the five permanent members – Britain, Russia, China, France and the United States – to pass. Council diplomats said the deferral request did not have enough support to pass, even without a veto.

The Security Council can defer International Criminal Court proceedings for one year under Article 16 of the Rome Statute that established The Hague-based court a decade ago. Western and Latin American delegations are reluctant to support a deferral because of concerns it could lead to impunity, diplomats say.

The council turned down a previous deferral request by Kenya in 2011 and rejected a request in May for the cases to be terminated because the council had no such power.

The African Union also plans to raise its issues with the International Criminal Court at a November meeting of the Assembly of State Parties, which is made up of the 122 members of the court.

Westgate Attack
92% of Kenyans identified Westgate mall as the location of the recent attack by Al –
Shabaab terrorists. Of these, two thirds (67%) think that the attack could have been
prevented.

When asked to identify the main reason for the attackers’ success, Kenyans identified
the following: failure/weakness of intelligence (NIS) at 46%, corruption of government
of Kenya officials (19%), insufficient/bad cooperation between the NIS and police (16%)
with the remaining (19%) citing other reasons or declining to answer the question.

participation of at least some (other) Kenyans.
Nearly three quarters (71%) of all Kenyans attribute the motive of the attack to the
presence the KDF in Somalia (now part of AMISOM), either as punishment for past
actions or to convince them to withdraw.

When asked to rate the performance of various organizations and persons in responding
to the attack, Kenyans give highest marks to the Kenya Red Cross (96%) and “ordinary
Kenyans” (94%) and the lowest to the Inspector General of Police (50%) and the Cabinet
Secretary of Interior (43%).

The ICC Process
Nearly all Kenyans (97%) appear to be aware of the ICC cases.
Just over half of all Kenyans prefer that the ICC cases continue (51%), but one-fifth of
these (9%) do not want them to require the presence of two of the defendants who are
now the president and deputy-president of Kenya. By contrast, nearly a third (30%)
desire that these cases be dropped completely (a statistically identical figure to that
obtained in Ipsos’ June survey – 29%); even smaller proportions prefer that the cases
either be tried in Kenya (13%) or be deferred for a year (2%).http://www.ipsos.co.ke/home/index.php/downloads